Undead Vengeance

Undead Vengeance

By Jeffery McDonald

Copyright 2014 Jeffery McDonald

Smashwords Edition

UNDEAD VENGEANCE

By

Jeffery McDonald

Dedication

To Amy-

Thank you for your never ending love and support. Without you nothing in my life would be possible.

Table of Contents

Cover page

Copyright

Title page

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter 1: The Family

Chapter 2: Pandemic

Chapter 3: The Next Mutation

Chapter 4: The Second Bunch of Lemons

Chapter 5: The Great Escape

Chapter 6: Into the Unknown

Chapter 7: Discovery

Chapter 8: Roughing It

Chapter 9: The Others

Chapter 10: Leverage

Chapter 11: Farming

Chapter 12: Soldering On

Chapter 13: Sniper

Chapter 14: Reapers

Chapter 15: Urban Ambush

Chapter 16: Retribution

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

About the Author

PROLOGUE: Not Exactly

Remember the saying When life hands you lemons make lemonade? So, what if life hands you the whole damn lemon orchard!

Well, first thing you do is kill everyone! That's where I found myself, stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Finding me in this peachy situation wasn't easy. It's been one hell of a ride that I wouldn't wish on anyone. You've seen it in countless action and horror movies, you've read about it in books, magazines and on the internet. I even asked the virtual assistant on my android phone about it once. She gave me really good advice, short and to the point, Gather supplies, band together in a group and seek shelter.

None of that really helps when you actually find yourself in my particular situation. Sure the preparation part helps, but actually doing it is another story. So there we were a family against the world.

Let me fill you in on how we got to this point. Maybe when the time comes you will be better prepared than I was, and will be able to find your way out of a similar situation. Maybe, you will even be able to avoid it all together!

1

The Family

My name is Dell and I had recently retired after serving twenty years in the U.S. Army. I was just beginning my new life as a civilian and trying my best to adapt to this new way of life. I wasn't a real big fan of joining the army to begin with. The benefits were really good and my family was always taken care of. When life throws you a curve ball, even if it's a curve ball that you help throw, you have to make the best out of the situation. So I became a lifer, with all the extra stress, painful toll on the body, extra grey hair and all.

I'd been happily married, for twenty-one years, to my loving wife Lee. She is truly amazing! Lee really has it all, the looks, the body, the smile, the sense of humor. To this day I still have no idea what she did and does see in me, but I'll take it none-the-less. I would not have been able to make it this far if she were not by my side. The endless support she provided me through my career helped shape me into the person I am today. We have three awesome children together; Kyle, Skye and Thoryan.

Kyle had been out of the house for a few years now living the college life and out from under our; in his words iron fist rule. I personally think that our kids were pretty lucky considering. The wife and I were pretty good with our good cop bad cop routine, me being the good cop of course. We always tried to ensure they knew right from wrong, and did everything in a respectable manner. We could have definitely been a lot harder on them. Kyle is lean, athletic and one of the most well rounded twenty-one year olds you will ever meet. He gets most of his mannerisms from me, quick witted and a total smart ass, that's why his mother had to develop her sense of humor, to defend herself against us. He'd been dating a girl named Maleah for a few years now. They met in college. Maleah is a real girly girl. Her hair is always perfectly styled, finger and toe nails always freshly painted. She's been around so long now we kind of consider her part of the family.

Skye is Skye. That's the best way that I can describe her. She is her own person, very creative and always has her own quirky way of going about things. She is tough and strong but may not be the most graceful at times. The poor girl has always struggled with coordination issues. Constant bumps and bruises from doing something clumsy. She had a medical record with the school nurse three inches thick when she was younger. Eighteen, newly graduated from high school, mix matched socks and all she keeps me smiling. She is just like me in so many ways, well except for maybe the dirty blonde pigtails and the mix matched socks and her taste of teeny bopper music. She is truly daddy's little girl.

Thoryan is a rough and tumble ball of concentrated energy packed in a ten year olds body. The kid is an information sponge, soaking up everything his brother and sister used to say or do. He can kick and punch as hard as most adults and will do it without any thought of bodily harm that might happen to him or anyone else as a result. I remember the time when I was working out at the gym and Lee brought him with her as she was heading to the store. He was two years old at the time, walked straight over to the kettle bells sitting against the wall and commenced to kicking the crap out of them. To him they were round, so to him they were balls and they deserved to be kicked. As a toddler he would impress everyone with his mobility and eye hand coordination. He really knows how to win over a crowd and keep them laughing and on their toes.

I have to admit that my family is pretty great. You will get to see many of our strengths and weaknesses as we move along in this tale of survival. This is how it all began; this is how the world changed forever. This is how we were forced to fight back.

2

Pandemic

This whole thing actually started out rather slowly.

All the news reports were saying is that there were three individuals, in a small secluded Russian village that had contracted what appeared to be a virus. Extremely high fever, blood shot eyes, deep blue veins streaked across their body and other side effects. They cleverly left out the slightly elongated teeth part as to not endue complete global panic right off the bat. Doctors and researchers were unable to identify the virus but did release that the individuals' health had declined at an alarming rate.

To me the word alarming could cover a rather large range of severity. There is the walk around the corner and someone is standing there and scares the piss out of you alarming. Then there's the oh shit there was a giant earthquake and Australia was completely wiped off the map. To me that seems to be a pretty wide range, how could the rest of the world gauge what some Russian doctors thought of as alarming.

Three days later the individuals were dead. The Russian doctors released the symptoms and warned everyone that if they had any of these signs, to seek medical attention immediately. So, alarming symptoms seek medical treatment, check. So far everyone that had contacted the virus had died. Not very sure what seeking medical treatment would help with but maybe they would figure it out before too long.

Three days later ten more people from the same village were dead. It went on like this for a while. Everyday more and more people were dying due to this mysterious virus. It quickly spread across Asia and Europe. Then it reached Australia and, shortly afterwards, North and South America.

This was turning into the bubonic plague of the modern world.

The entire world was facing the same virus. Researchers were continuously stumped in their efforts to find a cure. Every time they felt that they may have solved it; the virus would have mutated just enough for the vaccine to have no effect. Within a month hundreds of thousands of people had lost their lives to the virus.

The world had begun to spiral out of control. Everyone was freaking out, buying up all the bread and milk along with other items like dust masks and gloves.

It was like everyone was preparing for a dust storm of hurricane sized proportions. It made me chuckle a bit. If you were going to come down with this virus I don't think any of these precautions would save you.

It was one of those things that was, just simply inevitable. It was a freight train of a virus with no brakes; the world was a car stuck on the tracks in its path. I once had a friend of mine (who had been hanging out with a Brit) say, Then it got all pear shaped. Not something an American would normally say when things go wrong, but hey that is exactly what had happened.

The world had gotten all pear shaped. What was about to happen can only be classified as astronomically pear shaped! The virus kept mutating, always one step ahead of all the researchers and scientists and doctors around the world. Everyone was dying and no one could stop it. This was going to be fun.

3

The Next Mutation

My encounter with the newest mutation came one evening as I was driving home from work. It was still somewhat light outside when I spotted a car off the right hand side of the road.

The front of the white Ford Taurus was wrapped around a large pine tree, steam from the busted radiator spewing skyward.

I pulled up behind the car and put my old Range Rover Classic in park. While getting out of my truck, I was checking for signs of movement within the car. There was none to be seen.

Is everyone OK? I shouted as I walked up to the driver side door.

There was someone draped over the steering wheel. I couldn't see anyone else in the car. I opened the door and lightly tapped the gentleman on the shoulder. There was no response.

I could see blood dripping from the bottom of the steering wheel, pooling on the floor board between his feet. This is the first time I thought to myself that it wasn't looking good for the home team.

I felt the side of his neck for a pulse, still nothing.

Damn, I said as I slowly pulled him off of the steering wheel to where his back was resting against the driver seat.

Almost immediately I saw the indentation of the steering wheel crushed into his forehead. This guy had kissed it pretty hard on impact. With a skull fracture like that, nothing I could do now would matter very much.

Sure some people have lived through worse; gun shots to the head, nails from a nail gun, steel rods and other sharp pointy things, but I don't think he was going to be one of the lucky ones.

I reached into my pocket to grab my cell phone to call 911, that's when from the corner of my eye I caught movement. After not feeling a pulse, and after seeing the front of this guys skull crushed in, I was a little apprehensive and totally unsure of what to do next.

But hey, I am and always have been a nice guy, so, I was going to attempt to help this newly resurrected fellow. In combat life saver training, in the military, you are taught to stop bleeding and help reduce the pain before seeking medical help.

I again felt for a pulse and just as before nothing. This was insane!

His fingers were moving slowly and he had begun to move his feet slightly across the blood covered floor mat of his car.

Can you hear me? I said, You've been in an accident, and I'm trying to help you.

No response. No pulse. But the bastard was moving! Humans are not like snakes! We don't just wiggle around when we have no pulse. I took a half step back to pull out my phone again to call for help.

That's when I was handed my first batch of lemons.

Like a bolt of lightning this guy's mouth was clamped down on my right shoulder! I don't know how he got out of the car that fast or how he was even standing, but he did.

Son of a bitch, I shouted as I tried to spin around and get away from him.

Punching him in the head over and over with my left hand only sank his teeth in deeper. I could feel a tingle and burning sensation filling my right arm. In an act of desperation I pushed off with all my might and slammed him into the side of his car.

His head snapped back. I could hear and feel his teeth rip flesh away as I finally freed myself from his grasp. I took a few hurried steps back. That's when I noticed his eyes. Bloodshot! Not just red itchy eyes, like you get when you have allergies or a bad hangover, but seriously blood red bloodshot eyes. For a brief moment Ben Stein popped into my head, you know, dry itchy eyes in his hilarious monotone voice from the Visine commercial, but that thought passed real quick and in a hurry.

This guy did not waste any time as he made his move for me again. I struck out with a side kick to his midsection, which only buckled him over slightly, but he just kept on coming towards me.

Stay back, I yelled with adrenaline rushing through me as I attempted to make my way around the front of the car and around the big ass pine tree it was wrapped around.

I felt his hand grab the back of my shirt. Spinning around I was able to shed his grasp and make my way around the tree. I was searching for anything I could use for a weapon. I spotted a nice sized branch from a nearby pine tree lying on the ground.

Snatching it up in one clean motion, I turned to face him as he was rounding the tree making his way straight for me. I swung the branch as hard as I could and caught him square on the left side of his head. The branch shattered into hundreds of little pieces.

Here's a tip, if